After breakfast we met at the train station and caught a cogwheel railway through the adjacent Alps to Gornergrat. The top two photos below are from our hotel room window.

Opened in 1898, the Gornergrat cogwheel train is the world’s oldest electric mountain railway still in operation and has been built solely for tourist purposes. The 33-minute ride is incredibly scenic: the train offers a birds-eye view of Zermatt with the Matterhorn silhouette towering over it, lakes, forests, and numerous other peaks, valleys, and glaciers. From the top of Gornergrat, a mountain summit after which the railway is named, one can admire spectacular 360-degree views of Matterhorn and 29 other 4000-meter high peaks, as well as Gorner Glacier. 

Along the way, the views of Matterhorn were near breathtaking. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think I’d see this famous, spectacular mountain. 

Gornergrat (10,285 feet) is a rocky ridge of the Pennine Alps, overlooking the Corner Glacier southeast of Zermatt.

At the top of Gornergrat, the views of several glaciers overpowered the surrounding landscape. 

After loads of photos, Kay and I caught the cogwheel railcar and rode “down” to the first stop from the top, Station Rotenoden. At the stop an ensemble of people dressed in native costumes played music commonly associated with the Swiss Alps on Alpine horns and an accordion. Their appearance was at the entrance to an Alpine garden containing many plants in full bloom. This was also the “trailhead” where we began an almost 3 mile hike down the mountain and around a lake to the next “whistle stop”, Station Riffleberg. This was our favorite day of the entire trip.

Back at the the town of Zermatt, we made our way to the hotel, not realizing how tired we really were—and the twenty minute walk was mostly uphill. 

As for Zermatt, it remains almost completely free of internal combustion vehicles—apart from the local police service which uses a Volkswagen car, and the refuse collection lorry. It can be reached by train only and electric vehicles are used locally.. These electric vehicles, mostly small trucks and vans, are plentiful and driven very fast in the narrow cobblestone streets. Along with bicycles everywhere, walkers must remain on alert at all times.